Why Icahn Enterprises Shares Were Clobbered

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Icahn Enterprises , a property management and investment company founded by investment mogul Carl Icahn, shed as much as 13% after announcing a public share offering at a price significantly below yesterday's close.

So what: Icahn Enterprises registered a public offering of 3,174,604 shares of Icahn Enterprises at a price of just $63 as compared to its closing price on Thursday of $71.49. The overallotment also allows the underwriters to purchase an additional 476,191 shares at that price if they choose to. With roughly 104.9 million shares outstanding, a 3% boost to Icahn Enterprises' share count, which ultimately will raise about $200 million, is slicing close to $950 million off its market cap.

Now what: I wasn't a big fan of Icahn Enterprises before the offering, with the share price having doubled in just a matter of weeks since the year began. The huge disparity between the offer price and the closing price yesterday indicates to me that this was, more than likely, an emotion-driven rally, and Icahn Enterprises could have further to fall.

Craving more input? Start by adding Icahn Enterprises to your free and personalized Watchlist so you can keep up on the latest news with the company.

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Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.